


how are your lungs? are they in pain?

by prancelance



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Feelings Realization, Fluff, M/M, fitzroy is oblivious, rainer is adorable, spoilers through ep 16
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-15
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:08:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24729496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prancelance/pseuds/prancelance
Summary: When Rainer wrote to him via their notebooks of far-speech demanding-- sorry, requesting they have a catch-up date (“like shit, Fitzroy. It feels like I haven’t seen you in literal months”), Fitzroy was very excited. He really treasures Rainer as a friend, and even though he feels like he can’t quite tell her about the whole Chaos thing yet, seeing her might help to alleviate some of the weight on his shoulders.Now, however, he’s feeling a lot less excited.prompt: "oh my god! you're in love with him!"
Relationships: Argo Keene/Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt
Comments: 10
Kudos: 95





	how are your lungs? are they in pain?

**Author's Note:**

> this was requested by an anon on Tumblr, who said "24 - Argo and Fitz!"
> 
> 24: "oh my god! you're in love with him!"
> 
> title from would you be so kind by dodie!!

When Rainer wrote to him via their notebooks of far-speech demanding-- sorry, _requesting_ they have a catch-up date (“like _shit,_ Fitzroy. It feels like I haven’t seen you in literal months”), Fitzroy was very excited. He really treasures Rainer as a friend, and even though he feels like he can’t quite tell her about the whole Chaos thing yet, seeing her might help to alleviate some of the weight on his shoulders.

Now, however, he’s feeling a lot less excited.

Of course, he’s still looking forward to seeing her. But there’s some other emotion that’s filling him up at the moment, one that he’s become well acquainted with as of late since it won’t seem to leave him alone. At first, he thought that maybe he was nervous to see his friend. That would’ve made sense; sometimes, if he hasn’t seen someone for a while, he’ll be nervous that the relationship has been changed by the time apart. However, he ruled that out fairly quickly, because it also felt akin to happiness. He’s also ruled out excitement, dread, even straight-up anxiety. 

“Hellooo, Fitz? Are you in the astral plane?” 

Fitzroy snaps out of his thoughts to see Argo, smirking at him amusedly. “Sorry, Argo. Just lost in thought.” 

“We were having a conversation there, bud. I was asking you what your plans were for today?” Argo doesn’t look annoyed that Fitzroy spaced during their chat; instead, he looks understanding. That feeling gets stronger.

Fitzroy straightens his posture. “Oh, I’m just going to go meet up with Rainer at Fantasy Starbucks to catch up a bit.” Argo perks up at that, smiling warmly.

“Oh, that’s good! It’ll be nice for you to see her. Say, can I join you guys? Not right away, obviously. I’ll let you two have time to gossip and such. But after a few hours?”

Fitzroy pulls out his notebook, flipping to the last page. “That’s fine with me, let me ask her real quick.” He writes his message, and almost immediately receives an enthusiastic _Hell yeah!!!!!_ in return. “She says ‘heck yeah’ with approximately thirty million exclamation points.”

Argo’s smile gets bigger, if that’s even possible, and that emotion spreads up into Fitzroy’s throat. “Aw, that’s great. I miss her, too, you know. I haven’t seen nearly as much of her this semester.”

Fitzroy returns his smile in kind. “I’m glad you’ll be joining us, Argo.”

\---

“Fitzroy!” Rainer exclaims as soon as he walks into Fantasy Starbucks. It’s easy to spot her since she’s waving her hand frantically, her energy filling up the whole place. 

Gods, he missed her.

“Rainer,” he grins at her when he gets closer, leaning down to give her a hug, kissing her on the cheek amicably. “Have you ordered yet?”

“I have not, but I know what I want!”

“Good. I’ll go get our orders right now because I have _so much_ to spill.”

A few hours later, they’re sitting across from each other, their drinks almost empty, and Rainer’s mouth still agape from the story Fitzroy just finished recounting.

“I still cannot believe that you ripped a man’s hand off, Fitz.” Rainer shakes her head, but there’s a smile on her lips. “And you call my skeletons an affront against nature.” As if to prove her point, her squirrel scampers up the side of her chair and perches on the edge of the table.

Fitzroy recoils. “Look, I didn’t say that what I did wasn’t gross. In fact, I’ll admit it was pretty nasty. But not nearly as nasty as that thing.” Despite this, he still hands it a little peanut from the packet of mixed nuts he bought with his drink. It skitters away happily. He shudders.

“So is that why you’re acting so weird?” Rainer asks, sipping up the last of her drink.

That catches him off guard. “Um, what are you talking about? I’m acting perfectly normal, just like always.” He punctuates this statement with a very unconvincing laugh, to which Rainer gives an equally unconvinced look. “Okay, fine. You caught me. I’ve been feeling really weird ever since I woke up from the curse. Sort of off. Like… well, it’s really hard to explain.”

“Try me,” Rainer says, her eyes on him intently.

Fitzroy clears his throat. “It feels like… at first, I thought I was nervous? But there’s too much happiness there for it to be nerves. It feels like it wells up in me, like it’s expanding my chest. Or rather, sometimes it’s in my chest. Other times it’s in my stomach or my throat. Or sometimes, I feel it in my lungs, almost like they’re aching?”

Rainer furrows her brows, and her head cocks to the side in curiosity. “And the first time you felt this was-”

“When I woke up from the curse,” he finishes, nodding. “While Argo was laughing at what I said about blowing up his head. And it kinda faded during all that hand-ripping business. But it came back when I woke up and talked to Argo again.”

“When do you feel this? Like, have you noticed any specific variable that might make this happen?

He puffs his cheeks out as he sighs. “I mean, now it’s all the time. Like constantly. Sometimes it’s weaker, but it’s always there.” He racks his brain to remember when it was strongest before he came here. “It got fairly strong earlier though. Like when I told Argo that he could come to meet up with us. Actually, now that I think about it, it’s always stronger when I’m around him or when I’m… thinking about him.”

“Fitzroy, that’s love.” Rainer deadpans, but her face explodes into a bright, gargantuan smile, and she laughs. **“Oh my god! You’re in love with him!”**

A beat.

And then Fitzroy also bursts into laughter. “Rainer, you cannot be serious. There’s no way I’m in love with Argo! I know what love feels like, it’s like-” and he stops. He lets it sink in. And then slumps backward in the chair. “Oh my gods, I _am_ in love with him.”

Rainer cackles, her laughter booming so loud that the other patrons of the establishment glance over at their table. She even snorts a few times, having to wipe away the tears springing up at the corners of her eyes. 

“Having a fun time over here, huh?” 

Rainer’s eyes fall on the source of the voice, and immediately she glues her lips together, suppressing another snort. “Oh, um... hi, Argo! It’s so good to see you!” He comes around the other side of the table to give her a hug. “Argo, have I ever told you that you give the best hugs? After Master Firbolg, of course.”

Argo stands back to his full height, beaming. “That is very high praise, Rainer! Especially since I know firsthand how wonderful Firby’s hugs are.” He turns toward Fitzroy, and he can feel his entire face burn red hot. “Heya, Fitz.” He starts to walk backwards towards the counter, saying, “I’m gonna go get a drink, do you guys need to be topped off or?” After both of them shake their heads, he gives a thumbs-up, spinning on his heel and walking the rest of the way to the counter.

Rainer smirks at Fitzroy. He sticks his tongue out at her (although he really wants to do something ruder).

After Argo returns, he begins to tell Rainer about some parts of their trip. He talks with animosity, hands dancing around as he recounts the entire final showdown from his perspective. Throughout the whole story, Rainer’s eyes dart between the two of them, a smile never once leaving her lips.

They continue to have lively conversation, Argo and Rainer especially getting deep into a conversation about knitting, but when Argo excuses himself to go to the restroom, Rainer turns to Fitzroy as soon as he’s out of earshot. “Fitz, you have to tell him.”

Fitzroy, who is sipping up the melted ice at the bottom of his empty cup, chokes and has a coughing fit before he can respond. “What on Nua are you thinking, Rainer? There’s no way I can tell him, not when he doesn’t feel the same.”

“But he does, Fitzroy.” He whips his head to look at her, and her smile isn’t amused or smug; it’s soft. “You should see the way he looks at you. The way he talks about you. He definitely feels the same way.” She moves away from the table, and her soft expression turns into a pointed look. “If you don’t tell him, I’ll send my skeletons after you. And not the raccoon, because I know you like the raccoon.”

“I do like the raccoon,” Fitzroy mutters, averting his eyes to his hands in his lap.

She moves next to him, taking one of his hands. “I believe in you, Fitzroy.”

He gives her a side hug from where he’s seated, touching their foreheads together before giving her a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, Rainer. I’ll try.” And he watches her with a fond smile as she leaves.

“Hey, so when you’re knitting a rice stitch, do you-- oh, where did Rainer go?” Argo frowns when he comes back and sees that she’s gone.

Fitzroy stands, facing the genasi. “Um, she said something about needing to finish an assignment. You wanna walk back to the dorm?”

Argo gathers up the various pieces of trash from their table, tossing them in a nearby can. “Yup, I’m good to go!”

Everything is golden as they walk back, the sun painting a gilded hue on the whole landscape. Its rays poke through the trees that line the sidewalk, dappling everything on the path with bright speckles. 

_Well,_ Fitzroy thinks, _now is as good a time as any._

“Hey, Argo?”

“Yeah?” He stops a few steps ahead of Fitzroy, and as he turns, the sun catches in his hair in a resplendent halo. He senses that feeling, that wonderful feeling that feels so much better now that it has a name, swell inside of him.

“I think we need to have that talk now.”

**Author's Note:**

> i just HAD to include the little knitting detail since ember (dungeon-fever on tumblr) mentioned knitting in her post about argo and rainer's friendship
> 
> (also i just really fucking miss knitting but it's too fucking hot in texas to even CONSIDER having yarn in my lap for hours on end)
> 
> thank you for reading!! and thanks so much to the anon who requested this!! hope y'all liked it <3


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